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Hardliners assail
govt for
Now, Pak ready
for pipeline to India People run for cover after a protest by former Iraqi soldiers turned violent in the southern Iraq city of Basra on Tuesday. Iraqi policemen opened fire on soldiers of the former Iraqi army in Basra as they staged a protest demanding payment of salaries, witnesses said, in an incident which injured at least four people. — Reuters |
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Schoolchildren
among victims of Afghan blast At least 15 persons, mostly schoolchildren, were killed and 45 injured today in a powerful blast near a military base in the southern city of Kandahar, an official said.
The first British inquest into the death of Princess Diana opened today, then adjourned after the coroner said he was asking Scotland Yard to look into the 1997 car crash in Paris that claimed her life. Tabloid names
royal in Diana death plot claim French divers
find flight recorder
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Hardliners assail govt for ‘sidelining’ Kashmir Islamabad, January 6 Though there was a broad welcome of the meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf, the hardliners underlined the need for inclusion of Kashmiris in the dialogue process. Former Prime Minister of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) Sardar Qayyum said that sidelining Kashmir or making cultural agreements could not reduce tension between India and Pakistan and warned that if was not addressed and resolved quickly, the situation could result in an Indo-Pak war. He said the Line of Control (LoC) could not be accepted as a permanent border. “Unnecessary hopes were being attached to the SAARC Summit and one should not ignore ground realities,” he said in an interview to Urdu daily Nawai Waqt. Hizbul Mujahideen chief and chairman of the Muttahida Jehad Council Syed Salahuddin hit out at the SAARC forum, saying that it had been ignoring ground realities and making attempts to create “unrealistic conducive atmosphere through cosmetic measures”. Referring to the meeting between President Musharraf and Mr Vajpayee, Salahuddin said “all this is happening in a controlled, artificial atmosphere under immense pressure and in the guise of secrecy. “The talk of peace and initiatives for cooperation are all fine but what is their relevance to the ground realities. The convening of SAARC conference here is a welcome sign but the talk of economic cooperation and putting the security (on top) proves the gap between fiction and reality,” the Pakistan-based leader said. The government also came under fire from Jamat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmad who said that the Pakistani leadership was “conceding defeat” on the Kashmir issue under “US pressure”. He also said that ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ would be observed on February 5 to “foil ongoing conspiracies against ‘Kashmiris freedom struggle’”. He said the Pakistan Government was “completely ignoring” the Kashmir issue and the matter would be raised in Parliament, a report in Jang said. Taking a different line, PoK President Maj-Gen Sardar Anwar, Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar and Opposition leader Barrister Sultan Mehmood welcomed the Vajpayee-Musharraf meeting and said it was a “significant move’ towards resolving all outstanding issues, including Kashmir and establishing durable peace in the region. The PoK leaders said that Kashmiris have “full confidence” in President Musharraf’s leadership and that the recent meetings between Indian and Pakistani leaders would pave the way for “constructive talks” on
Kashmir. — PTI |
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SAARC inks free trade treaty Islamabad, January 6 The Additional Protocol on terrorism asks member countries to take effective measures to choke funds to terrorist groups and take collective and firm steps to tackle the menace “in all its forms”. It was signed by foreign ministers of the SAARC countries at the concluding session of the summit. “There is a need for increased cooperation and full implementation of the relevant international conventions relating to terrorism, to prevent and suppress the financing of terrorist acts,” the protocol says. It reaffirms the member countries’ determination to re-double efforts, collectively as well as individually, to prevent and suppress terrorism. The purpose of the Additional Protocol, which was finalised by the SAARC leaders after protracted deliberations, was to strengthen the SAARC Regional Convention on Suppression of Terrorism, particularly by criminalising the provision, collection or acquisition of funds for the purpose of committing terrorist acts and taking further measures to prevent and “suppress financing of such acts”. The second main achievement of the 12th SAARC Summit—the SAFTA treaty— is aimed at facilitating cross-border movement of goods also provides for creation of an effective mechanism for implementation of agreement and resolution of disputes arising under it. The treaty was signed by foreign ministers of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives. This means that the Free Trade Area in SAARC region would be operationalised by January, 2006. It will also provide for a list of sensitive items for member countries to safeguard national interests. The treaty makes it mandatory for all seven member countries to accord national treatment to each other’s products as also undertake additional measures, including harmonisation of standards, reciprocal recognition of tests and accreditation of testing laboratories, certification of products to facilitate trade. It will pave the way for creation of the SAFTA Ministerial Council (SMC), which will be the highest decision-making body responsible for administration and implementation of the agreement. The SMC will consist of ministers of commerce and trade, who will meet every year. The Chair of the SMC will be for a period of one year and will be held by member countries on a rotational basis in an alphabetical order. The “non-least” developed SAARC countries will have to bring down tariffs to 20 per cent from the existing level in the next two years and to 0-5 per cent in the subsequent five years. For least developed countries (LDCs), the tariffs will have to be brought down to 30 per cent within the time frame of two years and further to 0-5 per cent in the subsequent eight years. In another development, Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali today indicated that he would soon visit India as Chairman of SAARC. |
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Islamabad, January 6 The United States, Russia, China, Britain and U N Secretary General Kofi Annan hoped that Mr Vajpayee’s interaction with the Pakistan leaders would lead to further engangements between the two countries. “The US is pleased that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Musharraf met today. We encourage them to continue this process,” an official of the State Department said yesterday. In a related development, Chinese Foreign Office spokesman Kong Quan, appreciating the efforts made by the leadership of the two countries said, “as a friend and neighbour of both countries, China wholeheartedly hopes that India and Pakistan would maintain momentum of detente and make concerted efforts for peace and stability.” Russia has also welcomed the latest developments in Indo-Pakistan ties and hoped these would help in resumption of dialogue. Meanwhile, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said it hoped that the meetings would increase the momentum of the process of normalisation of relations between the two countries. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan also welcomed talks between Mr Vajpayee and President Musharraf and expressed the hope that this would lead towards normalisation of relations between the two countries.
— UNI |
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Now, Pak ready for pipeline
to India Islamabad, January 6 Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali told reporters here that he had “humbly and politely” raised the issue with his Indian counterpart Atal Bihari Vajpayee during their meeting two days ago, since it would “help India more than us... we are not opposed to it”. Observing that the pipeline could pass through Pakistan from Iran, he said, “now the ball is in the Indian Prime Minister’s court... I have agreed to it”. Mr Jamali said Pakistan was self-sufficient with regard to natural gas and that the project would “contribute” to “better prospects” for India. The proposal for supply of Iranian gas to India was mooted during Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Iran three years ago. Meanwhile, Pakistan today agreed to study Mr Vajpayee’s proposal for a joint
celebration of 150 years of the First War of Independence by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
— PTI, UNI |
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Schoolchildren among victims
of Afghan blast Kandahar, January 6 Gen Abdul Wasi, spokesman for the Corps Commander of Kandahar province, said the blast appeared to have been a ‘‘terrorist act’’. ‘‘Fifteen persons have been killed and 45 wounded,’’ he said. ‘‘The majority of victims were school-children.
— Reuters |
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Inquest into Diana’s death opens
London, January 6 Coroner Michael Burgess said he had asked London’s Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens to look into speculation that Diana’s death —the subject of persistent conspiracy theories — was more than a mere accident. “I am aware that there is speculation that these deaths were not the result of a sad, but relatively straightforward, road traffic accident in Paris,” the coroner said. “I have asked the Metropolitan Police commissioner to make inquiries. The results of these inquiries will help me to decide whether such matters will fall within the scope of the investigation carried out at the inquests.” In opening the inquest, the coroner said: “The purpose of this morning’s hearing is to open formally the inquiry into the death of Diana, Princess of Wales.” A court clerk then read a list of personal details about Diana and described her death in the 1997 crash.
— AFP |
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Tabloid names royal in Diana death plot claim London, January 6 In a front-page splash on the day Britain was opening an inquest into Diana’s death, the Daily Mirror named the person she had claimed was ‘’planning an accident’’ in a chilling prediction of her own death in a car crash in August, 1997. She made the allegation in a letter she gave to her butler and confidant Paul Burrell before she died. The former wife of heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles died at the age of 36, along with her lover Dodi-al Fayed and their chauffeur Henri Paul in a Paris road tunnel. The Mirror appeared to be risking an aggressive legal response from Buckingham Palace to its story. The rest of the normally competitive British media omitted the name, apparently to avoid legal action under Britain’s tough defamation laws. The newspaper printed a copy of the letter Diana wrote just 10 months before her death on its inside pages. Although it identified the person in its own story, the name was blanked out in the reproduction of the handwritten letter. ‘’This particular phase in my life is the most dangerous,’’ it quoted the letter as saying. ‘’(...) is planning ‘an accident’ in my car, brake failure and serious head injury.’’ A spokesman for Prince Charles declined to comment on the story. Britain’s tabloid newspapers have been engaged in an almost daily battle in the years since Diana’s death to produce the most sensational headlines about Princess Diana, Prince Charles and other members of her family and former household. Today’s revelation came as Royal Coroner Michael Burgess was due to open inquests into the deaths of Diana and Dodi. The inquests, the first official public hearings into the crash to be held on British soil, come more than six years after it happened. An inquiry by the French authorities in 1999 ruled the accident was caused by chauffeur Paul being drunk and driving too fast. The Mirror said Burrell was prepared to hand over the Diana letter to the coroner as part of the inquest. It said in doing so, he would be ‘’honouring a long-standing promise to cooperate fully with the inquiries’’.
— Reuters |
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French divers find flight recorder
Cairo, January 6 French officials were not immediately available to confirm the report. The Paris-bound flight, carrying 133 French tourists and 15 others, crashed on Saturday into deep waters off the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. A French official said today that salvage workers may have detected a signal from the “black box” flight recorder. A “black box”, which records technical data about the flight and conversations between pilots, should help explain what caused the crash.
— Reuters |
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Islamabad, January 6
